This case study demonstrates how Garnier Ultralift, the skin care product owned by L'Oréal, cut through scepticism about the cosmetic brands' scientific claims and increased sales.

Ultralift was a brand in steep year-on-year decline, having lost 30% of its sales in just four years.

Garnier had scientific proof that Ultralift worked but, in an overhyped market, the language of science was thoroughly devalued and consumers were increasingly sceptical.

In response to this, the 'UltraLift challenge' was launched, bypassing the usual 'labcoat lecture' approach by issuing a direct challenge to consumers to try the product for 14 days and provided them with a wrinkle reader to measure changes to their own skin.

This immediately reversed UltraLift's sales decline, delivering a 40% increase in unit sales 18 months after the campaign began and a revenue ROMI of 1.91.

2

Hindustan Unilever: Kan Khajura Station - From the 'dark' to connectivity

Two of India's regions - Bihar and Jharkhand - were home to 130 milion people that Unilever wanted to reach out to, but they were also 'media dark', with no electricity for 8-10 hours a day.

54 million people in these regions owned mobile phones, so Unilever decided to create a free-to-use entertainment channel that worked by playing 15 minutes of content via a free call back service.

The channel was promoted through posters placed at popular gathering places, outbound calls and local print media - with a simple 'free entertainment' message.

The campaign reached 25.5% of the population in 6 months, with 24 million calls from 8 million unique subscribers leading to rises in spontaneous awareness for several of Unilever's key brands.

3

Neutrogena: Sun activated advertising

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MMA Smarties, Silver, MMA Smarties, 2014

This case study describes how skincare brand Neutrogena promoted its new sunscreen line in the US, Neutrogena Beach Defense, by using an advanced mobile campaign to target its audience at appropriate times. View Summary

This case study describes how skincare brand Neutrogena promoted its new sunscreen line in the US, Neutrogena Beach Defense, by using an advanced mobile campaign to target its audience at appropriate times.

Faced with the challenge of breaking through an already cluttered category, Neutrogena needed to activate its mobile campaign during ideal weather conditions when sun protection is most top of mind.

It developed an advanced mobile campaign that allowed real-time UV conditions to automatically turn on the Neutrogena Beach Defense ads, as well as geofencing that gave directions and a coupon offer when the audience was near key retail locations.

The campaign is one of the first in the industry to utilise weather targeting and was incredibly successful in launching the new Beach Defense brand into a highly competitive category.

4

Hindustan Unilever: Kan Khajura Tesan

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MMA Smarties, Best in Show and Gold, MMA Smarties, 2014

This case study describes a campaign by Hindustan Unilever (HUL) to reach its rural audience in Bihar, India in order to start creating share of voice for its mass and rural-focused brands. View Summary

This case study describes a campaign by Hindustan Unilever (HUL) to reach its rural audience in Bihar, India in order to start creating share of voice for its mass and rural-focused brands.

While TV reach is 23 million, mobile reach is more than double that, at 54 million, an absolute penetration of 72%.

To target this audience, HUL created Kan Khajura Teshan (KKT), an always-on mobile entertainment radio channel in which the content is interspersed with communication about HUL brands; as of March 2014 there were 12 million subscribers and more than 103 million ad impressions had been served.

The project eventually aims to reach 20 million households and thus 100 million users in India's media-dark hinterlands where KKT covers 60% of non-TV households.

5

Unilever Vietnam: Vaseline sun dress project

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PMAA Dragons of Asia, Silver Award, 2014

This case study describes how Vaseline in Vietnam used a digitally activated campaign to achieve transformational business results in the face of a serious business challenge. View Summary

This case study describes how Vaseline in Vietnam used a digitally activated campaign to achieve transformational business results in the face of a serious business challenge.

The body care category was growing in Vietnam, but the Vaseline brand was not, and it was facing extremely tough competition from rival Nivea, which was rapidly gaining share.

Research revealed that, despite women recognising the necessity to cover up in the sun, this left them feeling less than beautiful, so with this in mind Vaseline set out to revolutionise the way they dressed while out in the sun by giving them the confidence to say goodbye to their cover-ups for good, thanks to the sun-protection benefits of Vaseline SPF.

The campaign, which centred around a digital activation, garnered more than $119,000 worth of free media and, in a matter of weeks, Vaseline SPF's market share had rocketed, growing at a rate of 47% and exceeding sales targets by 160%.

This case study describes how Unilever, the consumer goods company, used mobile as an entertainment channel to reach out to key growth markets in India, in regions that had previously remained disconnected from the world in media terms. View Summary

This case study describes how Unilever, the consumer goods company, used mobile as an entertainment channel to reach out to key growth markets in India, in regions that had previously remained disconnected from the world in media terms.

While most of the world is now connected, even spoilt, by an overload of entertainment via regular media and digital mediums, Bihar and Jharkhand are two of India's most media-dark regions.

However, with a population of 130 million they were key growth markets for Unilever, who had to find a way to reach out to them.

54 million people have mobile phones, which Unilever transformed into the Kan Khajura Station, a 15-minute, free on demand entertainment channel that worked on any mobile phone.

The service reached 25.5% of the population and grew spontaneous awareness for Unilever brands.

This case study describes how Hindustan Unilever (HUL) created a mass consumer engagement platform straddling the personal care and beauty brands from its portfolio - Pond's, Lakme and Dove - to create lasting bonds, higher consideration and believability among Indian brand evangelists.

HUL wanted to create a space where women could have relevant and customised conversations about their beauty needs, without brands telling them what to do.

It created BeBeautiful, a content portal optimised for multiple devices and powered by a highly engaged fan base on Facebook and Twitter.

With 1.9 million page visits and 1.4 million unique visitors, BeBeautiful is now the number one Indian beauty/fashion/ style community, and has helped improve measures of awareness and consideration for associated Unilever brands.

This case study explains how L'Oreal YouthCode, a skincare brand, reversed its decline in Singapore by positioning it as helping other products to work better, rather than being the best itself. View Summary

This case study explains how L'Oreal YouthCode, a skincare brand, reversed its decline in Singapore by positioning it as helping other products to work better, rather than being the best itself.

Its previous positioning had been a 'do-it-all' proposition that offered many benefits but had no killer feature.

YouthCode repositioned itself from being a 'multi-benefit' anti-ageing serum, to the first essential step to prep the skin and boost its absorption power.

By changing the language used to describe the product it managed to earn its place in women's skincare repertoire not by saying it was better than its competitors, but by improving the delivery of its competitors' product benefits.

The key to this was unlocking an important consumer insight - that Singaporean women have a habit of rotating the use of their various skincare brands/products.

YouthCode became the No 1 bestselling SKU in the mass skincare and anti-ageing segment within the first month, with sales were 72% higher.

Its strategy was to use the launch to reposition the Citra brand as a counter-offer to the category's advanced tech-driven whitening claims.

Unilever shifted the point of focus from tech-driven efficacy to achieving fairness 'naturally', and brought the unparalleled beauty of fairness achieved the 'natural' way back to the fore in Thai culture.

Post-campaign, Citra's 'fairness' equity went back up by 8%, 'natural' up by 16% and penetration reached record levels.

This case study describes a campaign by Dove, the personal care brand owned by Unilever, which targeted men in Canada with celebrity sports endorsement. View Summary

This case study describes a campaign by Dove, the personal care brand owned by Unilever, which targeted men in Canada with celebrity sports endorsement.

Dove is a strong brand for women, but a consequence of this success has been low brand scores with men.

This campaign challenged masculine stereotypes that were dominant in male personal care marketing, portraying a more realistic image of men.

Two former NHL athletes were enlisted with ads focussing on their roles as 'real men' within their family lives.

The fully integrated campaign was presented as a competitive 'real man challenge', including TV ads, in stadium ads, out of home, digital and social media.

The campaign exceeded volume sales targets, reaching $31 million against a $25 million target, and increased its target brand perception and share of social conversation.

14

Superdrug Beauty Face Masks: Face value

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Design Business Association, Silver, Design Effectiveness Awards 2014

This case study describes how a packaging redesign enabled Superdrug, the beauty and health retailer, to reduce decline in its own-brand face mask range. View Summary

This case study describes how a packaging redesign enabled Superdrug, the beauty and health retailer, to reduce decline in its own-brand face mask range.

From a yoy decline of -16%, sales increased by 362%.

Assessment of the existing design suggested it was not immediately obvious that it was a face mask - important for this usually impulse buy - and that it did not appeal to younger nor older age groups.

The redesign segmented the range, with some products given a more colourful and fun design aimed at younger consumers, others a more sophisticated design for older consumers, and further products targeted at men.

This case study describes a campaign which formed part of the Self-Esteem Project by Dove, the personal care brand owner by Unilever, which featured seven ordinary women as role models for others in Canada and the US. View Summary

This case study describes a campaign which formed part of the Self-Esteem Project by Dove, the personal care brand owner by Unilever, which featured seven ordinary women as role models for others in Canada and the US.

The Dove Self-Esteem Project is a longer term campaign which seeks to help women and girls develop a positive relationship with beauty and has been running since 2005.

In this manifestation of the project the inspiring stories of seven women were explained in online videos.

A celebrity ambassador was used to promote the videos, and people were invited to share their own stories on the brand's Facebook page.

This case study describes a campaign for Dove, the personal care line, which aimed to increase affinity with the brand by building self-esteem amongst women in Canada. View Summary

This case study describes a campaign for Dove, the personal care line, which aimed to increase affinity with the brand by building self-esteem amongst women in Canada.

This campaign was an extension of Dove's self-esteem project that targeted art directors, graphic designers and photo retouchers, after finding that retouched models in magazines and other media were damaging to women's and girls' self esteem.

A Photoshop downloadable tool was created which claimed to create a skin glow effect, but actually reverted retouched photos to the original and displayed a message against retouching.

A video showed the reactions of this target group which was then shared with key people.

The video and reactions were then shared through a Twitter hashtag, eventually reaching 1.2 million video views, and generating press and blog coverage.

This case study describes how Parachute Advansed Body Lotion, the personal care brand, targeted women in India with an emotional brand message. The market was dominated by functional claims and the brand felt pressure to use a fresh insight in order to maintain its leading market share. The campaign used television, outdoor, digital and print advertising, along with product sampling and earned media through blog reviews. Parachute Advansed Body Lotion gained 3.3% market share and became year round product of choice in the category.

This case study describes how Unilever, the FMCG company, promoted several of its brands targeted at men as part of a campaign in Indonesia to coincide with the South East Asia Games. View Summary

This case study describes how Unilever, the FMCG company, promoted several of its brands targeted at men as part of a campaign in Indonesia to coincide with the South East Asia Games.

The public had low confidence in the country's ability to host the games successfully and so Unilever was invited to sponsor the games just 13 weeks before they started.

Unilever used a positive message of encouragement with the campaign slogan "Come on, Indonesia can!", creating a participatory social media campaign which included video and contributions from the public.

The campaign achieved large scale social media engagement, with 15 million pledges of support for Indonesia through Unilever's campaign in 34 days.

This campaign was designed around Procter & Gamble's (P&G) sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games; it was the household goods company's first ever global-scale program behind its Olympic sponsorship as well as the largest initiative in P&G's history. View Summary

This campaign was designed around Procter & Gamble's (P&G) sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games; it was the household goods company's first ever global-scale program behind its Olympic sponsorship as well as the largest initiative in P&G's history. The campaign was designed to provide a heart-warming umbrella that would connect P&G, its individual brands and the Olympics movement together in the minds of consumers. The idea was to create a campaign that would resonate with consumers on a highly emotional level by bringing a universal insight to life that was linked to P&G and Olympic values: the 'Thank You Mom' campaign was created to honour the role mothers play helping their kids to reach their full potential. Ads featured the mothers of Olympic athletes, as well as the athletes themselves. P&G employed real-time optimisation to maximise effectiveness. The campaign's broader activation included 32 brands in over 50 countries; it recorded a 40% stronger brand equity performance than the 2010 P&G Olympic ads.

25

Parachute Advansed Body Lotion: Rediscover romance through touch

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Warc Prize for Asian Strategy, Entrant, 2012

Indian cosmetic company Marico wanted to draw more users into the under-penetrated body lotion category by launching a new product: Parachute Advansed Body Lotion (PABL). View Summary

Indian cosmetic company Marico wanted to draw more users into the under-penetrated body lotion category by launching a new product: Parachute Advansed Body Lotion (PABL). The goal was to gain 5% market share in the first eight months. PABL focused on reaching urban married women aged 25 to 44 and communicating an emotional as well as functional rationale for choosing the product. By linking the skin-softening benefits of PABL to the idea of intimacy they positioned the product as helping restore romance between husband and wife. In its first eight months on the market, PABL gained 8% value share and 75% of its users were new to the category, helping grow penetration from 12% to 17% overall.